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WatchOS 5.2: All The Little Things!

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
BoricuaHec01 said:
Where is it located, I can't seem to find it, I can only find developer downloads. Do you have a link?
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To me it is a matter of semantics: while the watch OS beta is not public, any member of the public can join the dev program and install. From what I can tell, watches that get bricked or fail with beta versions are covered by Apple.
How to join, download, install, and other details here:
https://developer.apple.com/support/beta-software/install-beta/
 
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gwhizkids said:
Sure. Anyone can join if they’re willing to pay $99 / year.
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Not true my friend.
"Participation in the Apple Beta Software Program is voluntary, and does not cost
any money. Apple also offers no compensation to users for feedback regarding
pre-release software installations. ... Any available public beta versions of iOS or OS
X can be installed on compatible hardware free of charge."
 
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rojocrandall said:
Not true my friend.
"Participation in the Apple Beta Software Program is voluntary, and does not cost
any money. Apple also offers no compensation to users for feedback regarding
pre-release software installations. ... Any available public beta versions of iOS or OS
X can be installed on compatible hardware free of charge."
Click to expand...

The Apple Beta Software Program is the public beta program at https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

watchOS betas are not public betas and are not available to anyone in that program, they are only available to developer accounts. So while it's true that anyone can create a free developer account and access the watchOS developer beta (edit: actually I just checked with a free account and it isn't available, I only see it when logging in with my paid account), that is a very different agreement to the Apple Beta Software Program.

As you well know, there is a very good reason that Apple doesn't make public watchOS betas. No one should be encouraging anyone to install it unless they understand it's designed to be put on separate development devices because it could brick the watch and there's no recovery process except sending it back to Apple.
 
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rojocrandall said:
Not true my friend.
"Participation in the Apple Beta Software Program is voluntary, and does not cost
any money. Apple also offers no compensation to users for feedback regarding
pre-release software installations. ... Any available public beta versions of iOS or OS
X can be installed on compatible hardware free of charge."
Click to expand...

You notice that there is no mention of WatchOS betas in the language you quoted. As the other poster indicated, Apple’s developer program (which you need to be in for WatchOS betas, at least legitimately) is not free ($99 US / yr). The program you are referring to is the public beta program. No WatchOS betas with that.
 
gwhizkids said:
You notice that there is no mention of WatchOS betas in the language you quoted. As the other poster indicated, Apple’s developer program (which you need to be in for WatchOS betas, at least legitimately) is not free ($99 US / yr). The program you are referring to is the public beta program. No WatchOS betas with that.
Click to expand...
Yet, watchOS is included. I am able to download and install watchOS betas for free - I'm on 5.1.2 now.
[doublepost=1543433229][/doublepost]
happyhippo1337 said:
So ECG is said to be activated when 5.1.2 releases officially - isn't it already in the dev beta?
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Not that I can tell..
 
gwhizkids said:
No, it is not included in the Public beta program. You may have gotten the profile somewhere, but not there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I just double checked by logging into the developer portal with my paid developer account and then again with another Apple ID that doesn't have a paid membership. When I log in with the free account, the watchOS beta isn't available and it says:

"Your Apple ID must be associated with a paid Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program to access certain software downloads."

I'd imagine if your Apple ID was added as a team member on a paid account it would also give you access.

But otherwise you'd have to download the developer beta profile from a third party site, which would be in breach of the developer agreement.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple clamps down on this at some point and starts charging people a repair fee for fixing watches bricked by installing the developer beta if they don't have a paid account or are part of team in a paid account.
 
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friednoodles said:
Yeah, I just double checked by logging into the developer portal with my paid developer account and then again with another Apple ID that doesn't have a paid membership. When I log in with the free account, the watchOS beta isn't available and it says:

"Your Apple ID must be associated with a paid Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program to access certain software downloads."

I'd imagine if your Apple ID was added as a team member on a paid account it would also give you access.

But otherwise you'd have to download the developer beta profile from a third party site, which would be in breach of the developer agreement.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple clamps down on this at some point and starts charging people a repair fee for fixing watches bricked by installing the developer beta if they don't have a paid account or are part of team in a paid account.
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Thanks for the clarifications - you and gwhizkids know much more that I do.
 
rojocrandall said:
Thanks for the clarifications - you and gwhizkids know much more that I do.
Click to expand...
My main reason for being so insistent on this - perhaps to the point of being annoying - is that this qeustion gets asked a lot and I want to make sure everyone understands. Maybe that's not my role to play, but hey! The other thing is discouraging non-developers from installing this using "bootlegged" profiles. As much fun as betas are, they can be a lot less fun on the Watch if something goes wrong. At best, you are without the services of your watch for several days (at least) while Apple procures a new one for you. At worst, Apple could take the position that if you are not a paid developer and installed the beta outside the program, you have voided your warranty and they could refuse to replace it. I have not heard of this happening and, knowing Apple, its probably unlikely. But, you never know. The stock keeps tanking and iPhone sales plateau or even drop, a once generous Apple may decide to stop being so generous. I'm not sure getting in on a beta is worth the risk to a multi-hundred dollar watch. But that's just me!
 
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gwhizkids said:
The other thing is discouraging non-developers from installing this using "bootlegged" profiles.
Click to expand...

And it's worth noting that in addition to all of the issues of running a watchOS beta, these config profiles can be used to do all kinds of nefarious things, like proxying traffic to steal information, so you'd want to be very careful installing a profile you downloaded from some random website to be sure it really was the one from Apple.

(this technique of tricking users into installing malicious profiles was starting to become such an issue that Apple changed how it behaves on iOS 12 to force you to manually find the right area in Settings to install an opened profile, instead of directly launching the install confirmation pane)
 
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This lastest beta was released a long time ago now. Really want the messages complication back.
 
Neo1975 said:
This lastest beta was released a long time ago now. Really want the messages complication back.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing there will be a stable release this week. I'm sure they want some time before Christmas in case of any issues that need urgent attention
 
Does the 5.1.2 include ECG support, or will that only be in the official watch OS release?
Seems from the macrumors front page, 5.1.2 should include ECG support already.
 
gwhizkids said:
Anyone else having problems with r"aising your wrist Siri"? I feel stupid repeating stuff over and over to no effect. I eventually have to invoke Siri with the Crown. Is there a trick to this or is this just generally problematic?
Click to expand...

It's problematic I think. It rarely ever works for me.
 
Great! I'll install it tomorrow morning while it's on the charger then :)
Looking forward to the messages complication on my infograph watch face!

ECG could be fun to test but I can't use US region all the time. Hopefully it will be approved in the EU this decade
 
Do y'all think we will get the app being on the latest watch beta, or will we have to update to 5.1.2 public release?
 
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